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Protecting Our Common Waters

Justice, Resilience & Collective Power

Join Kirsten Shead, Co-Executive Director of Milwaukee Water Commons and a 2024 River Network River Hero, for a critical conversation on how water stewardship, climate resilience and environmental justice deeply intertwine with movements for social justice and liberation. Together we will explore the interconnection of local and national threats to our drinking water, public health, ecosystem health, equitable access to green spaces, community engagement and decision making around our shared waters - considering tools and tactics for strengthening and mobilizing the movement for environmental justice.

Kirsten will share programmatic and advocacy examples of the ways MWC advances distributive, restorative and procedural justice with its peers and partners using frameworks for social change. Milwaukee Water Commons is building a multicultural, multiracial movement that invites leadership and innovation from throughout the city and includes everyone in decisions about the care of our common waters.

About Kirsten Shead
Kirsten Shead (she/her) is Co-Executive Director of Milwaukee Water Commons, where she advances water equity and environmental justice through coalition building, policy and advocacy, programming and movement building. With a background in chemistry and interfaith leadership, she brings a unique blend of science, spirituality, and movement-building to her work, weaving artistic and cultural connections to water into community action.

Kirsten cultivates community leadership through initiatives like Branch Out Milwaukee, promoting equitable urban canopy restoration, and through her service on the Wisconsin Governor’s Climate Change Task Force. Her advocacy, alongside coalition partners, helped secure lead service line replacement in Milwaukee and advance restoration efforts in the Milwaukee Estuary Area of Concern. She consistently challenges racial inequities within environmental spaces while fostering dialogue, accountability, and multiracial leadership.

Grounded in anti-racism, LGBTQ+ and women’s leadership, a deep love for the Milwaukee community and our sacred earth, Kirsten finds joy in the natural world — identifying plants, watching wildlife, and being on, in, or under water.

Related campus initiatives

Sustainability Greater La Crosse community

When

  • 3:30 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 8

Where

Cleary Alumni & Friends Center

UWL campus map for building location and nearby parking lots.

University of Wisconsin - La Crosse Cleary Alumni & Friends Center

If you go

  • Free, no registration needed

Contact

For questions about this event or to request disability accommodations , contact Whitney George at 608.785.5107 or wgeorge@uwlax.edu.

Parking

Payment may be required. No permit?
Use Passport Parking.

Additional parking info
Website for Parking | Email for Parking | Call for Parking

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